The following is an exploration of “Assimilation vs. Inclusivity” through an expository paragraph on the learning concept of “Apply decision-making strategies to a life, work, or community conflict and adjust the strategies to adapt to new situations”.
Together but divided
The photo ‘Assimilation vs. Inclusivity’ reveals insight on the theme “Apply decision-making strategies to a life, work, or community conflict and adjust the strategies to adapt to new situations”. While examining the photo, the gradient color within the photo, and the camera angle which was a bit a more zoomed out gave the impression of peering through a looking glass. It was quite clear that the artist was trying to communicate the issues that Indigenous Peoples have faced in the past, and still have to live with to this day, which include Residential Schools and the abuse and hate they faced and still do face. On the right side of the photo everyone is presented more content, and cheery, on the left, all the children look the same. The colors relay a more depressing feeling to viewers, they are all the same, grays and blacks as opposed to the children on the far right who are wearing a wider variety of colors. The children to the right also appear to be much more embraced in their own culture in comparison to those children with the identical outfits. They all have longer hair or hair in different styles to represent their different beliefs and are wearing their own traditional clothing. The facial expressions of all of the children also play a big part in this photo conveying the message it does. The children who are wearing the same outfits bear a monotone and unhappy look, they look as if they are just coping with their situation, however the others are smiling big and look much more joyful. It seems as if the artist presented the photo like this on purpose to highlight how they are together in spirit yet still divided. This artwork also conveyed amount/impact in numbers. As the photo moves farther back, it is apparent just how many children are in uniform compared to the others in their traditional clothing. It portrays the affect that resident schools have had on all the Indigenous children to this day even though they have grown up. The photo “Assimilation vs. Inclusivity” is a truly deep and meaningful piece of artwork that depicts the tragedy that the First Nations people have had to deal with for years, that still leave a mark on them today.
The Bento-Box project is an interesting way of having of having students express their learning throughout the book they read. The students must choose 5 different artifacts that correlate to the book and write multiple different types of paragraphs on different topics, relating to each object.
My Core Competency reflection:
Communication:
How did you work with others to develop ideas?
During this project I worked with others to develop my ideas in a few ways. During the beginning process of the project, my group ad I worked together to help one another think of objects. We all also offered to bring in objects that another in our group may have wanted and helped circulate general ideas around. As well as when I was in the final stages of finishing my projects, with the help of the others in my group I had some help of thinking of some connection ideas, as well as some help from my teacher Ms. Shong. I overall really enjoyed this project because it is different from any other project I have ever done before.
Critical & Creative Thinking:
What aspects of this activity were challenging?
The aspects of this challenge that I found the most difficult was definitely the word count and artifact ideas. By word count I mean the number of words required in each section, I found this particularly hard in the “Writer’s Style” section. I was trying my best to find different things about the writer’s style, but I kept coming up with the same things. After taking some time, it became easier for me to think of some ideas for the “Writer’s Style”. I was also having a bit of trouble coming up with my ideas for the different objects to put with the book. My group helped me think of a few, but I was having trouble thinking up the last two. However, it became much easier after looking through my writing. A good strategy that I found helped me, was when I couldn’t think of an object, to just write even without an object. That way, the object sort of just came to me after a while. There were few challenging parts to this project but the ones that were challenging I was able to solve with a bit of help from my peers, but mostly, I was able to resolve myself.
Here is my blackout poem on the Veldt. I used a book page to create this poem. I ‘found’ this poem on page 41 of the novel ‘Red Rising’.
Eyden Amram’s poem “Machine People” is a thematic exploration of Ray Bradbury’s short story “The Veldt”. She portrayed a clear theme which was technology and alienation, more so how gravely technology has affected society and humans all together.In the line, “Emptiness life without freedom, emptiness living chained by fear” I felt that she was talking about how for the kids in “the Veldt”, technology and/or the nursery symbolized freedom and happiness but really it had a worse effect on them after all. More so how once the kids get their freedom with technology taken away it is like their life is over. She continues to personify this through her lines throughout the rest of the poem. She says, “break those chains of society, I’m slaved here.”Breaking down the underlying problem between the parents and the kids in “the Veldt”. They know they have a problem but it is like they’re stuck inthis cycle and it’s too late to break the long-lasting effects that will happen.She proceeds to write “The things you could do, you could make. You have been given so so much; you’re not living” which really touched on just how the kids weren’t living. They were empty and had no emotional regulation. They were so connected to their nursery and technology that the moment their parents, who had become mere irritations throughout their day, threatened to sever the emotional tie they had between them and this nursery, they snapped. They weren’t feeling and making emotional connections with people, which is why they relied so heavily on this nursery to make them happy, because they knew they couldn’t count on their own parents, which therefore made the nursery a kind of parental figure in their lives. She goes on to add, “we are machine minds, machine lives, machine hearts, what do I live for, I must live for more, in this world”. Throughout this line all I could think about was how obsessed the kids were with their material goods and always needed their technology to function like normal human beings. The kids were like machines, and at one point, so were the parents. The parents were evolved enough that they had started to realize their mistakes and the gravity of exposing their kids to technology so young would be. However the children weren’t old enough to be able to know by themselves, and that is where the parents let them down in a sense. Throughout her poem, Eyden Amram uses metaphor and repetition. When reading this poem, it was quite easy to visualize the different parts of her poem. It was clear that she had a good understanding of how technology has affected humans up to this point. I felt as if she was trying to communicate how technology has such a hold over us and how we might rely on it too much. As she said in the line “I’m slaved here”, we’re stuck in this cycle of reliance on technology and we’ve pushed it too far.
For our Indigenous Explorations Podcast assignment, we chose Kamloops Indian Residential School. I worked with my friends Aj, and Andy on this school project.
Our podcast:
My experiences writing this project:
In this assignment, my group and I chose the Kamloops Indian Residential School. I personally loved this assignment for multiple reasons. It required a team which I really loved because I got to work with others, but I also loved getting a more unique project. It was so interesting learning about a specific school instead of all residential schools as a whole. I really enjoyed writing a script which I had never done before and getting more experience doing that. We all researched together so that we were on the same page and helped one another write notes. It was fun working with my friends on this project although I do think we should have tried to organize our time better because it took us longer than it should’ve to write our notes. That led to the chain reaction of us having to move a bit quicker through our script, but in the end, I was really proud of our finished product.
For the recording portion of this assignment, I felt for the most part it all went well. We had a quiet room for the first day and we got mostly everything done. However, there were some focus issues. We kept getting distracted by little things happening, but we got ourselves back on track fast and kept going till we got it done. All in all, I felt that this project and our progress towards the finished product was quite good, and I am very proud of how we worked.
How does your artifact tie in with what you have learned before? How has your thinking changed? What made it change?
I found that this assignment really helped me tie in all my learnings about First Nations Peoples and Residential Schools. Having learned about these things in the past benefited me so much in this project because I had a really good base understanding to build up from. Knowing the general idea of what was going in Residential Schools and having already heard things about this school in particular, for example the 215 graves, etc. I had such a good starting point to help my group. During the process of this project, I found my thinking changing consistently. On a deeper level I found myself understanding the things I had been learning about for years. The cycle of abuse and intergenerational trauma and the long-lasting effects Residential Schools had and have on it’s victims. I was thinking more about and looking at the effects Residential Schools had after they were over. Looking at the suicide rates, and the poverty rates for Indigenous Peoples, really upset me in particular. The effects of these Residential Schools last for a lifetime, and I think that is what this project helped me to think about the most.
Wikipedia contributors. (2022b, October 16). Canadian Indian residential school system. Wikipedia. Retrieved October 19, 2022, from Canadian Indian residential school system.
Wikipedia contributors. (2022a, September 20). Kamloops. Wikipedia. Retrieved October 19, 2022, from Kamloops
Gale – Institution Finder. (n.d.). Retrieved October 20, 2022, from https://galeapps.gale.com/apps/auth?userGroupName=&origURL=https%3A%2F%2Fgo.gale.com%2Fps%2FtermCluster%3FinPS%3Dtrue&prodId=GVRLTerm Clusters – Gale Power Search
This is my One-Pager on the Pathways to Theme assignment. The assignment was to choose a children’s short story and create handmade page containing information on the story that also includes some form of a visual aspect. The story I chose was “The Water Hole” by Graeme Base.
Reflection:
Usually when I read children’s stories, I am not trying to think about the deeper meaning in them. I like that this assignment challenged me to read between the lines and find different connections within the book. I was having some trouble thinking of a design that I’ d really like since I kept redoing because for me everything has to be perfect for me to like it. I wanted to choose a book on a topic that would challenge me as well as have a topic that I was passionate about. I wanted to find good text to world connections, themes and essential questions. I also specifically chose this book because I had read it in elementary school and never thought anything of it, but it talks about topics that I am very interested in now. The book “The Water Hole” represents issues that are a problem in our world today. It talks about climate change and greediness. I have always been interested in learning more about climate change and I think that’s really what this book was trying to communicate. That we are running out of time, and we aren’t going to have a second chance because we only have this one world, and we should be doing everything in our power to look after it. I wanted to do my one pager on something I could say a lot about and find good links too. This book helped me show my strengths in writing and my enthusiasm for art as well. I loved having to incorporate art into English because I am so used to having to just write. I found it very refreshing getting to do a project with paper and having more of a free hand and more room for creativity. All in all I really enjoyed creating this project in all aspects.
Questions chosen from the rubric:
(Included in the article)
Why did you choose this artifact?
What aspects of this artifact were challenging?
How does this artifact represent you and your learning strengths?
